22nd March 2010

Now the 6 nations is over, watch this spot for more news of the Heineken Cup, the Magners League, the Super 14, the Tri Nations...you get the picture.

20 March 2010
14:30 GMT Wales 33 – 10 Italy Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
17:00 GMT Ireland 20 – 23 Scotland Croke Park, Dublin
19:45 GMT France 12 – 10 England Stade de France, Paris

The final weekend of the six nations got going in Cardiff at the Millennium stadium as Wales took on Italy. It was a return to form for Wales as they ran away easy victors with the Italians really only concentrating on defence, which the Welsh ground down and then ran away the match in the end. There was a titanic battle up front between props Adam Jones and Martin Castrogiovanni for best facial hair of the tournament, marginally shaded by the Italian. This is an area that the Italians generally excel at, now they only need to work on their rugby.

The second match of the day saw Ireland take on Scotland at Croke Park. Rugby's sojourn at the home of the GAA has been an up and down affair, It started with a last minute loss to the French in 2007, and ending with a loss to the Scots in the last few minutes. It was pretty tortuous to watch, Ireland made loads of mistakes and never really got out of the blocks. They underestimated the Scots who on the balance of play deserved the win, and should have won more in the competition. Still, second in the tournament is still creditable, Ireland has loads of new talent coming through, and they know they can play better than that.

The final match saw the French take on England at the Stade de France in Paris. Ireland's defeat meant France had already won the tournament, so would they get the Grand Slam? England FINALLY showed a bit of enterprise and attacked with flair, coming up with the only try of the match. Just as I’d been preparing to write their obituary with gusto, they come back from the dead, Lazarus like. Their scrum is still pretty stinky though. The French played it cute, conservative and tight, they were clearly the better side but took the game on their terms, having left their running shoes at home. While it would have been sweet to seen England win and for France to have lost the championship to Ireland on points difference ( the same way Ireland suffered in 2007) you have to hand it to the French, this was their Championship.